JackMcCoy and New Zealand The Festival kicked off under the stars in Narrabeen Australia in January The night was electric with the open air arena packed with over 3 000 people who experienced the melodic tunes of Donavan Flrankenreiter as the sun set and the world premiere of Fair Bits on a giant 50 foot screen Eight months and 13 countries later the final screening of the 2005 Festival was just

JackMcCoy our main cartoon base camp and took us all for an early morning ride north None of us knew where we were heading until we travelled thru a little town and then a road the followed the coast We could see lines and clean waves fanned by offshore winds The sky was clear and the gang got more and more excited as we got closer to our destination A quick run up the track and there in front of us were perfect 6 8 ft peak that blew out in both directions It was perrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect Our surfers consisted of Cable from DY Dylan from the south coast Rasta Margo and visiting Californian Donavan Frankeitter riding the weirdest most futuristic surfboard you could imagine It looked like something out of Star Wars Believe it or not the board went really really well Donavan reckons this is only the second prototype that he and his shaper have been playing with and he hopes to refine it further in the coming months All of the surfers were going nuts Dylan obviously knew the spot from surfing it before but the rest of the lads also rode deep on perfect Pipeline type lefts and Backdoor type rights It was EPIC to say the least I shot a couple of rolls of high speed film that I m looking forward to seeing processed Should be a couple of nugget s The next couple of days were spent in Dylansville picking the choice spots to share with his mates He also pulled out his strapped little booster and went ballistic in the air Pulled off a couple backwards loops that were crazy Stay tuned for more of Margo Dylan Donavan Rasta in the coming weeks However next week we are off to the Billabong Pro at

JackMcCoy sit in the audience and enjoy my film with over 1000 other surfers It was the greatest show I think I ve ever done I wished Laird could have been there to experience the energy that was going off under this one roof It was insane it was electric The next night was much the same people coming from Brisbane and Byron to see it Again we turned several hundred away We were staggered at the response There was not one person who was not stoked Must people came out in shock The whole experience blew them away The second night on the Gold Coast was much the same We were off on a flying start Two night s later though we were brought back to earth On a Monday night at a local RSL club in Coffs Harbor we only half filled the hall There were issues with people signing into the club that we learned on the trot Those that saw the program however were stoked to the max After intermission at each show we had some door prizes courtesy of Billabong Oakley and Floor Boards the 100 wool mats shaped and coloured like surfboards I would always look for the smallest grommet to bring onstage to draw the lucky winners In the spirit of Kids say the darnest things we had some classics That night at Coffs I asked a cute little girl where she was from thinking like everyone she d say Coffs Harbour We all cracked up when she said Australia Next stop was Perth My history of showing surfing films at the Regal Theatre go back to 1973 The opening night we invited 250 industry and surfing personalities to attend It was great to see Rick Jakovich and his family up from down south to see his film on the big screen For the next four nights the crowds grew and grew until we put the House Full sign up on the last night This was also the night that 8 mates in the 3rd row all jumped up together and claimed Lairds big wave when he came out by punching the sky in sync They were pumped From Perth it was to Newcastle With the help of Warren Smith who handled our local promotion we had two incredible nights at the Civic Theatre The Civic is a classic old deco National trust theatre We were able to present the programs on the largest screen of the whole tour Those shows went off With friends Peter McCabe Sam Egan and the One Mile Beach lifeguards in attendance it was a real stoke to sit in the audience with them all and enjoy the show We were not quite sure if we should hold the festival in the small room or the big room at our next stop Wollongong We decided to go safe with the small room and ended up turning more people away The small room was long and narrow with just under

JackMcCoy him They would all then drive off in the new car The director was an award winning gentleman named Kent Allen of Micronite Productions Kent proved to be an absolute classic I was wondering how he was going to do this magic trick of getting all these guys out of the tube nothing short of pulling a rabbit out of a hat with all the things that we had going against us The worst was the weather that gave us about 30 minutes of sunlight in the week my assistant Sinclair Black and I were there The tide the light and the wind always seemed to be against us Kent was having his difficulties also Finally after waiting 3 days we started shooting in the overcast conditions to get something in the can My talent was a cool young man Hamish Whyle His faithful sidekick was great Bali surfer and Quiksilver rider Tip Jabrik We also had the services of Steve who provided jet ski support We did our very best to try and come up with a tube shot but as ready as we were to shoot it the surf never gave us the chance We did score some great waves at Nusa Dua where we shot what we could but it s a big playing field out there on that long reef and almost impossible to hook up for a tube shot on what little tube moments there were However we did get some fantastic surfing action and beautiful underwater shots that Kent assured me will do just fine And what about the shot of the 7 guys coming out of the tube on one board Well in the film and commercial world it s all done with smoke and mirrors I believe Kent will make a cracker

JackMcCoy first afternoon it was decided that the 40 lb camera and splash housing were not ideal and that they were going to rig a 80 pound plus dive housing and 35mm camera on the back The camera hung from the top bar by bungie cords It was quite a set up Unfortunately no one took a picture of it all rigged up but when I saw it I had my doubts After lunch we launched the contraption Rob and the camera swinging on the back me at the wheel It was outrageously tippy The only way I could get any control of the ski was by going flat out fast To stop would be an immediate roll over Rob and I zoomed around the small sand Island while kite surfer Paul Stockholm barely got going in the light wind On one pass of the island Rob and I caught up to Paul and were getting some good shots It was difficult to keep the ski upright All of a sudden Paul s kite lost wind and dropped directly in front of us I had two choices Run straight over his kite and have it get sucked into the impeller of the ski or stop Stop down I did Rob and I and the camera went into a slow roll to the left and over we went I got my radio that was strapped around my shoulder and neck caught up in the camera rigging It took me a while to get untangled I came up and Rob was no where to be seen Just then he came up He d been held under longer than I was The heavy camera that had been hanging down now was swinging from the top bar pulling the entire ski underwater like a led ball The ski was taking water fast It took several dives by Rob to free the camera When it was brought up the housing was flooded The front glass port has struck the reef breaking it and the result was a drowned Ari 4 camera a 150 000 plus rig totally soaked Salt water does wonders to those sort of things It later came back with a 90 000 repair bill Once it became apparent that the camera was soaked my jet ski didn t seem that important The ski and I were towed back to the mother ship and the shoot went on without us Sara made some hasty calls to Yamaha dealers for me before we were turned onto Danny Dade of Gert s fantastic crew Before we were all bundled into Choppers for the ride back to Cairns I took the ski to the Island and Danny promised to have a look at it He got it running that night It was a full on day to say the least The next three days were spent shooting the rest of the commercial I was able to shoot a couple of rolls of my first ever kite boarding

JackMcCoy mile before unloading onto another sea wall that runs north to south and in towards the center of the river The Coast Guard guys are legends who have 40 50 ft rescue boats that charge into the surf They took us for a ride the first day when the surf was 10 12 ft They head straight into this confused sea and surf and take it on They get hammered One of their drills is to roll the boat in the surf They do this to practice their rescue technique for the non stop rescues they perform many in the middle of the night 8 of the worlds best big wave surfers were here for the safety clinic and rehearsal for the Billabong Odyssey a 3 year completive search for and tracking down and surfing the biggest wave they can find Billabong brought over Brian Keahalana Hawaii s 1 water safety expert and pioneer of jet ski rescue to train all the competitors and water units of the Odyssey in the latest course that he has put together The coast guard and a local fire rescue unit joined us in all of the drills Although normally a 5 day course he crammed it into 3 days of intense classroom and ocean senerios that tested us all to the max The last day was held on open beach on the other side of the north sea wall in 10 12 ft perfect storm conditions where we dropped people into the water and performed rescues 100 300 yards off shore The air and water were freezing cold and the wind gusting to 45 mph blowing dogs off chains It was what Brian called the most challenging conditions he s ever done a clinic in We all came away with a knowledge and

JackMcCoy of ladies they proved to be It is easy to see why they are considered the best in the world at the moment From the first surf we all had together at the famous break at Teahupoo it was apparent that the three ladies chosen to star in the film LIQUID had every intention of showing the world how good female surfers really are Keala was the first to charge into a big solid 6 ft wave and pulled into the tube like a master I was staring straight into the barrel and got a good look at her eyes wide open as she weaved her way thru this grinding tube Next was Rochelle who did a late take off and then pulled the rail up into the tube for a great deep ride Layne was next pulling hard turns and heavy snaps off the top During the next two weeks we had great surf and weather almost everyday that ranged in the 3 8 ft range Each of the girls had one day or another where they stood out slightly from the others but the standard was always very high We had a great day on an outer island left in the 4 8 ft range and a fast tubular right on a reef pass not far from Teahupoo that was The footage was captured from a special scaffolding built on the reef from a helicopter and finally my water angles This year I worked again with my friend Poto No one knows the reefs in Tahiti better and with his driving the jet ski I was able to get some great tracking angles right next to the surfers while they were riding the wave Our man from last years Oxbow Tahiti trip still photographer Tim McKenna is to